Bob Mathias Biography

Born Robert Bruce Mathias, November 11, 1930, in Tulare, CA; died of
cancer, September 2, 2006, in Fresno, CA. Olympic athlete and politician.
Bob Mathias overcame adolescent anemia to win two Olympic gold medals in
the arduous decathlon event. He also represented California in Congress
for four terms. Mathias, who also played in the Rose Bowl for Stanford
University, was undefeated in eleven decathlons, captured four Amateur
Athletic Union (AAU) championships, and set world records three times.
"There were better athletes, but not many," Jim Murray, the
late
Los Angeles Times
sports columnist wrote in 1988. "There were guys who could run
faster, jump higher, throw farther. But not all three at the same
time." Mathias also acted, and played himself in the 1954 movie,
The Bob Mathias Story
.

Mathias was raised in Tulare, California, a farming community in the San
Joaquin Valley. To battle his anemia, he took iron and liver pills, which
his physician father prescribed, and took frequent naps. When he reached
Tulare High School, he was 6-foot-2 and weighed 190 pounds. He averaged 18
points per game for his basketball team over four seasons, and nine yards
per carry as a football run-
ning back, but he was best in track and field, with the shot put and
discus his specialties. He captured state championships in both events.

His track coach, Virgil Jackson, suggested he compete in the decathlon, a
demanding competition featuring ten events. They involved "several
disciplines that Mathias had mastered but some that he had never even
attempted," Jerry Crowe wrote in the
Los Angeles Times
. Mathias and Jackson familiarized themselves with such events as the pole
vault, javelin, and 1,500-meter run by reading textbooks. Mathias held the
javelin "like a guy killing a chicken," Murray wrote.

Despite having only three weeks to prepare for the event,
Mathias—then a high school junior—won the decathlon at the
1947 Southern Pacific AAU Games in Pasadena, California. Two weeks later,
he won the AAU national event, which served as the Olympic trials at the
time. His hometown friends raised money to help pay for his trip to
Bloomfield, New Jersey, for that event.

At the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, Mathias, then 17,
overcame rain, heavy winds, and slippery surfaces to become the
youngest-ever track and field gold medalist. He wrapped himself in a
blanket between events while dominating his opponents during 12 hours of
competition on the second day of the event. "It was so dark for the
next-to-last event, the javelin throw, that cars were driven into Wembley
Stadium and headlights put on so the officials and the athletes could see
the foul lines," Frank Litsky wrote in the
New York Times
.

His hometown of Tulare celebrated his victory. "Factory whistles
and fire sirens blared for 45 minutes after news of Mathias'
victory came over the radio," the
Los Angeles Times
' Crowe wrote. President Harry S Truman welcomed the champion upon
his return. Mathias won the Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur
athlete in the United States. "I wouldn't do this again in a
million years," he said, as quoted in the
New York Times
.

But he repeated in 1952, in Helsinki, Finland, becoming the first repeat
Olympic champion despite competing with a pulled thigh muscle. He had
added three inches and 15 pounds to his frame. Mathias also played
fullback for Stanford in its 40-7 loss to the University of Illinois in
the 1952 Rose Bowl, making him the first athlete to play in that bowl game
and compete in the Olympics the same year. Stanford had qualified for the
Rose Bowl two months earlier when Mathias scored two fourth-quarter
touchdowns, including a 96-yard kickoff return, in a 27-20 victory over
the University of Southern California at the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum.

Mathias graduated from Stanford in 1953 and served in the U.S. Marine
Corps as an officer from 1954 through 1956. He briefly made movies with
the likes of Victor Mature and Jayne Mansfield, and operated a camp for
boys. His television acting included starring in the series
The Shooters
from 1950 to 1960. He did not compete in the 1956 Summer Olympics in
Melbourne, Australia, because the AAU, the governing body for the U.S.
Olympic team at the time, ruled he had to return his movie and endorsement
proceeds. However, Mathias had already spent the money.

In the same 1966 election in which California voters elected Ronald Reagan
as governor, Mathias, a Republican, defeated seven-term Democratic
incumbent Harlan Hagen. Name recognition helped, though Mathias told the
Los Angeles Times
in 1988, "You still have to know your subject matter. You just
can't run on your name and do a lousy job." Mathias, who
considered himself a fiscal conservative, represented the Fresno region
for four terms until he and other Republicans were defeated in the
Watergate scandal-related sweep of 1974. From 1977 to 1983, Mathias was
director of the U.S. Olympic Committee training center in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. He was also the executive director of the National
Fitness Foundation and president of the American Kids' Sports
Association, a nonprofit organization. Mathias was elected to the National
Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974, and the United States Olympic Hall
of Fame enshrined him in 1983.

Mathias died at his home in Fresno, California, on September 2, 2006.
Earlier that year he had undergone cancer treatment at Stanford. He is
survived by his second wife, Gwen; three daughters and a stepdaughter; and
ten grandchildren.